Skip to main content

Eighty-four Days and Counting

 Earth date: August 10, 2020

Are you registered to vote?

If the answer is no or you are not sure, skip this blog (as scintillating as it is) and go check on your status. Go to: www.votetexas.gov/register-to-vote/ . If you live elsewhere, it is just as easy to access voter registration information in you state.

Be prepared.

Election day is eighty-four days away (November 3rd) and the deadline to be registered to vote is in half that time (October 5th). Do not wait; do it now. It might take 30 days to get your card. Make sure it matches the ID you are going to use, and if there is an error, you will have to get the registration card corrected before you can use it. You might not have enough time to have it fixed before Election Day.

The website will provide most of the information you need: who is eligible to vote, how to get an application, whether you are already registered, how to report a lost registration card, and how to update or correct information. Do it immediately since as previously stated, time is of the essence.  

In the meantime, make sure you also have ONE of the many forms of acceptable ID you will need to take with you to vote in person. In Texas, there are eight acceptable forms including one called RID, a reasonable impediment declaration for those who cannot provide one of the other seven. Another thing you can do while you wait is to become familiar with your options on how and where to vote. Some people in Texas are eligible to vote by mail, and because of the pandemic, early voting in person in Texas has been expanded from October 13 through October 30, 2020. Some places offer curbside service for those who cannot enter the building to vote, so a ballot can be taken out to them, and they also offer drop off voting for those with a mail in ballot who prefer not to use the Post Office. Call your local voting district to explore your options beforehand. Don’t go to all this work and then cannot deliver your vote.

Be informed.

Download and print a sample ballot before you go to vote and study your choices, marking or highlighting the candidate you finally choose.  Study the responsibilities of the office before selecting the candidate of your choice. Sometimes the title of the office is misleading. For instance, the Texas Railroad Commission does not regulate railroads. It has had nothing to do with the railroads since 2005. It regulates oil, gas, coal, uranium, and the delivery of each throughout the state. Knowing the responsibilities of the office helps you to assess the candidates based on their qualifications, backgrounds, and experience. No office is inconsequential, so study all of them before selecting the best candidate.

As October 13 approaches, you will be ready. You will be prepared and informed. You will have done everything possible to vote well, safely, and wisely, and if ever we needed all voters to get out and make their voices heard, it is 2020.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Breastday to Me!

I gave myself a very special birthday present this year – I had surgery. Before you think it was to increase, decrease, or “lift” something, let me tell you it was not cosmetic (though I could probably use a few nips and tucks at my age; the infinite number of creams I buy OTC are not working their promised magic). About four or five months ago, I discovered a hard lump about the size of a large marble in my left armpit.  I had been feeling small pangs of pain in my left chest for several months, but I figured it was just my turn to dance with heart disease.  Everyone in my immediate family is diabetic and suffers from strokes or heart attacks, so I thought – here we go; my turn. I was going to tell my internist about the pangs during my next visit, so imagine my surprise when I discovered the lump. The Drama Queen in me immediately manifested herself – cancer, I thought.  I have cancer. I searched some more and found that the texture on the left side of my left breast felt diffe
9 comments
Read more

Dating Challenged

I stink at dating – always have.   I sputter.   I hyperventilate.   I fail miserably every time. I blame a pathetically underdeveloped gene that got little use before I married in my early twenties, then atrophied, gathering dust and rust, until I became single again in my fifties.   I decided to use this defect to my advantage when I needed to do some investigative reporting a few years back.   While on a newspaper writing assignment on Boomer-aged dating, I sacrificed my dignity and my vanity for the sake of the story (and I got several). Thank goodness, HoneyBunch saved me from all this when we married.  (He comes up with the best dates.) I’ve decided I will “show you mine if you show me yours.”   I will swap dating horror stories with you, but you have to promise to play along. The trick here is to tell about your worst date in 25 words or less.   You must keep it clean and you cannot name names. Our little contest will run only this week and before my next blogger posting.   Me
8 comments
Read more

Grandma’s Dining Table

Twenty five years ago my first husband and I bought a new home with four bedrooms and three baths, but my favorite part of the house was the enormous room you walked into from the front door. It had no dividing wall but the design was to use half of it as a formal living and the other half as a formal dining. From the beginning I decided to make it into one huge dining room that would catch the eye when everyone walked in through the front door of my home.   My three children were very young, but I envisioned them grown and married. We counted five at the time, but one day we would grow to eight, maybe more if we factored in grandchildren, so I bought a table that sat a family of twelve.  My husband thought it silly to look that far ahead and convinced me to buy only ten chairs. The room looked magnificent – the long, majestic table, the ten chairs, the buffet, a couple of real ficus, and a few other nice pieces of furniture – I was pleased. The table lasted longer than t
6 comments
Read more